A Tribute to Our Panther

Until recently, many of you knew very little about my angel cat brother, Jamison. I mostly tried to steer clear of him so I didn’t have much to report about him.

As far as his interaction with the blog, there was the time that he hacked my blog and I caught him. I eventually hired Ernie the Attorney and took him to court where Judge Frankiefarter (aka Judge Farter) heard my case. They’re the pups behind FRANKly and ERNESTly Speaking.

You can find more stories by clicking the tag that says jamison on the left side of my blog.

What’s not on the blog follows here:

Jamison was found on the streets in Tampa in 2007. He was found while Mom and Dad were looking for Dad’s cat, Ozzy, who had just come to live with Mom a week earlier and went missing. Ozzy was black and they had received a phone call that he had been sighted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Ozzy but (fortunately) it was Jamison. He was so skinny and he had a notched ear, indicating that he was likely a stray TNR (trap-neuter-return). Dad was all, “You can’t leave him here,” and Mom was all, “Yes I can! I didn’t want a cat to begin with!” Well, Jamison upped his charm and as Mom was squatting to pet him, he jumped up on her lap, curled up, and went to sleep. That was it. He wiggled right into Mom’s heart. When they got back to Mom’s apartment, Dad was playing with Jamison by the coffee table. Jamison got very playful and swiped dad right underneath the eye, making him bleed. I’m pretty sure that’s when Dad fell in love. BOL!

Jamison’s first picture. He made himself right at home.

Mom took him to the vet and found out he was approximately 3 years old and “abnormally long”, which was why even at 11 lbs and always eating, he looked anorexic. The vet said he was the perfect weight and that was just the way his body was.

As “healthy” as he was, shortly after he arrived, he got a horrible case of pancreatitis and almost died! After that he was on I/D Prescription Diet without treats for the rest of ever.

Another little while later, Khia came to live at Mom’s apartment. Khia and Jamison were BFFs when Jamison wasn’t sitting out on the patio causing the 15-cat-deep-feral colony to congregate by Mom’s patio. Mom used to call him a drug dealer because they lived in the ghetto and the feral cats would line up on the other side of the screen as if they were waiting they’re turn to see him.

His muscle tank that said, “I’m on the list” BOL!

They lived in Mom’s tiny apartment for another year and a half with Mom’s guinea pig, who Jamison never once tried to hurt, before moving in with my Grandpa for a year. Grandpa had a male cat and he and Jamison used to get into huge fights where it would just be a blurry tumbleweed with puffs of fur flying out.

Eventually, Mom and Dad bought a house and moved in together.

Jamison became much more loving once he no longer had access to the outside via a patio. He loved snuggling.

Khia, Jamison, Mom and Mya on Mom’s lap

Mya, Jamison, and Me snuggling Mom. Khia was on Mom’s legs.

He loved hiding in boxes, a picnic basket, and laundry baskets.

His favorite time to try to get your attention was when you were using the computer. He would climb up on the desk and rub your “mouse hand” causing the user to click everywhere they didn’t mean to.

He loved playing with the laser pointer.

He loved stretching out as long as possible.

He especially liked laying on our dog beds so us dogs couldn’t use them.

Another one of his absolute favorite things to do was to knock ornaments off of the Christmas tree (what cat doesn’t love to do this?). Mom never got pictures of this because she would be too busy chasing him with the spray bottle and yelling like a lunatic. Oh man, it was hilarious! Next year Jamison is going to get his very own ornament on the tree. Mom says it’s the best way to honor him.

By far, his most favorite thing to do was to guard the water bowl so no one could get a drink.

He stopped doing this when Molly moved in because he knew she wouldn’t put up with it but for years, this was his trick. Mom would put fresh water in all the bowls and then he would stand in front of them. He wouldn’t drink. Just stop us from drinking it. And notice how that one bowl is alllll the way away from the wall? Another one of his favorite things to do to get Mom riled up. If any of us dogs drank from the bowl, it was “contaminated” and he required fresh water.

He was crazy, some times scary (ok…a lot of times scary), BUT he was my brother and I will miss him.

Thank you to everyone who wrote nice things to Mom, Dad, Macy, Molly, and me.

Mom is having a hard time adjusting because she doesn’t feel like Jamison is really gone. See, Jamison normally hid out in the office and so it just seems like he’s hiding as usual. It’s just certain things that remind her that he’s not here.

A big thank you to everyone who participated in yesterday’s Purrs 4 Jamison. We haven’t finished visiting you all but that’s what we’re hoping to do today. Here’s a list of all of the ones we’ve seen. If you did one and it’s not listed, or saw one not listed, please let us know so we can stop by and see it.

oh I remember this court case… and I always call it into my minds when tears are on the way… it works not always but it is a little helper to deal with the sadness…. the photo of khia mya and jamison with your mom is just wonderful… I just thought how blessed I am that I had the chance to meet them all at your blog….

We are sorry we didn’t get to participate in Purrs 4 Jamison yesterday, Socks has been taking up a lot of our Mom’s time so we haven’t been keeping up with our friends like we should. Thanks for posting more about him. We got a good laugh out of him guarding the water bowl. ((hugs)) We are so sorry Jamison had to go to the bridge.

Sweet Noodle, that was such a loving tribute about your cat-bro. Thank you for sharing details about his life. He sounded like quite the little kitty. Please know we are 💔 heartbroken for you. Thought and prayers flowing your way.❤️

Thank you for telling us the story of Jamison. I am glad you got him out of the ghetto and his life of crime. 🙂 He sure kept the dogs on their toes. But I can understand not wanting to drink dog slobber. 🙂

SO happy to hear more about Jamison’s adventures while he was with you – he sounds like he was QUITE a little character who made his mark with everyone in his time with you……heart and soul. He was full of fun and mischief…….So many people pawticipated in “his” day yesterday I think it’s a wonderful tribute to the fact that even if some of us didn’t know him that well, we felt close to him because of the sadness we felt and we CARE about all of you. Angel Jamison is doing fine at the Bridge – he’s guarding water bowls and hogging all the beds……he’s happy…….he’s right there in your hearts too!

He was such a troublemaker, Sammy. He’d recently started to calm down. Mom was so curious to know how he’d act as an old man. We were so shocked to see how many participated. It was very comforting. Thanks for letting us know how he’s doing. *Ear licks*

We do calm down in our older age! People were so upset about poor Jamison and everyone wanted you to know we were so sad about what happened…..and I wanted you to know that Jamison is fine here at the Bridge and as soon as he’s adjusted he will be visiting you – especially your Mom – she will feel him the most I think.

We are so very sorry your bro had to leave. We didn’t know Jamison but feel like we did with this special tribute–he sounds a lot like our old bro. Could be they’re buds now! We loved the photo of you all on your mom.

thank you for taking the time to post this wonderful tribute and photos. i heard of your loss at tails around the ranch. checking into day to see how you are all doing.
your cat’s rubbing the mouse helping you out reminded me of our own black cat faith.
our computer desk is all black. when faith, our black cat was alive she loved to crawl up into the desk out of our sight then pop out from under the compter monitor her green eyes alight with mischief. her stealth mode worked every time.
it took quite awhile to get used to her no longer being with us esp. when working on the computer. we would forget untill that moment. there will be times when you will forget. but what I’m hoping for you as time passes your ‘ remember when ‘
will be filled with laughter instead of tears.

Hi, new friend. Thank you for stopping in to see us. We are doing a little bit better. It’s always hard going into the office. We still think we are going to trip over Jamison or sit on him because he used to sit on the black leather computer chair. Again, thanks for stopping by. *ear licks* Noodle

I was in tears when I read about Jamison… hard from me to post. I love black cats and to find out he was hurt by a dog… it was too close to home. I will post my tribute on Wednesday. Right now, his lovely badge is on my blog and he is listed in the Honoring Past Bloggers… Purrz and Loves, Katie Kat.

Oh sweet friend. We read about Jamison’s passing and we were so sorry. We followed your updates but were out of town on your Purrs for Jamison Day. Your tribute is so very beautiful dear friends. It brought tears to our eyes here. We are sending you much love – including hogs and snout kisses. XOXO – Bacon

Dear Samantha, Greg, Noodle, Macy, and Molly
This is such a touching post about Jamison….he was quite a stately looking cat in spite of his beginnings. Jamison was for sure the purrfect name for him very dignified.
And we wanted to say you are welcome we sure did hope and purr Jamison would over come the injuries
Hugs madi and mom